The Mech Touch - Chapter 13

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The Mech Touch - Chapter 13

The Mech Touch

The Skill Tree featured a virtually endless amount of skills. With
enough Design Points, Ves could become the ultimate mech designer,
capable of drafting a complete design in minutes with his left hand
while pointing out the faults of someone's else work with his right
hand. Naturally, Ves lived in a world where time and resources were
finite, so he didn't delude himself into thinking he'd ever reach that
point in his lifetime.
For all its merits, the Mech Designer System represented an
incomprehensible piece of technology. Sometimes Ves felt as if reality
itself bent to its whims. He didn't know how sapient the program was
or how it determined its own limits. If one day the System's
sophisticated AI turned crazy, entire star systems might get embroiled
into war.
The System in fact always addressed him as a user, not an owner. It
acted as if Ves was just one client who conveniently picked it on the
ground. If Ves' father hadn't given him the data chip, the System might
have found a way to get its chip transported to some other person with
the traits it preferred. This insecurity made Ves question if the System
was using him rather than the other way around.
Certainly the System didn't work for free. Some powerful entity had
gone through the trouble of designing a reality-bending software
working on principles at least a thousand years beyond humanity's
grasp, and somehow it ended up in an average person's hands. And it
was a question whether the System will stay in that person's grasp for
long.
For all Ves knew, the System only treated him as a train. Once it
reached its destination, it would leave without a word.

So Ves felt the need to milk the System while he still could. So despite
all his doubts and questions, he still skimmed over the Skill Tree and
made a shopping list of skills he needed to tackle the redesign of the
Caesar Augustus.
[Assembly - Upgrade to Apprentice]: 1000 DP
[Assembler Proficiency I]: 200 DP
[Assembler Proficiency II]: 400 DP
[3D Printer Proficiency II]: 400 DP
[Jury Rigging II]: 300 DP
[Electrical Engineering - Incompetent]: 200 DP
[Electrical Engineering - Novice]: 500 DP
[Electrical Engineering - Apprentice]: 1000 DP
[Mediumweight Armor Optimization I]: 300 DP
These were the absolute minimum required to produce or to redesign
a Caesar Augustus. Ves needed to become much more familiar with
the tools in his workshop in order to fabricate the C1's notoriously
delicate components and put them together. And if he wanted to
redesign the mech to make it easier to produce, then he needed to
become proficient in electrical engineering pretty fast.

Since Ves was attempting to fabricate a stock C1 in Iron Spirit, he felt
he should make a start on a purchase. He picked the cheapest option
in the list and bought it immediately.
[You have spent 200 DP to acquire Assembler Proficiency I. Please
view your Status in order to confirm your skills.]
[Status]
Name: Ves Larkinson
Profession: Novice Mech Designer
Specializations: None
Design Points: 98
Attributes
Strength: 0.7
Dexterity: 0.7
Endurance: 0.6
Intelligence: 1.2
Creativity: 1
Concentration: 1

Neural Aptitude: F
Skills
[Assembly]: Novice - [3D Printer Proficiency I] [Assembler Proficiency
I]
[Business]: Apprentice
[Computer Science]: Incompetent
[Mathematics]: Incompetent
[Mechanics]: Apprentice - [Jury Rigging I] [Speed Tuning I]
[Metallurgy]: Apprentice
[Physics]: Novice - [Lightweight Armor Optimization I]
Evaluation: Halfway stepped out of the stupidity cave.
His status hadn't changed much except for the painful loss of so much
DP.
Now that he had the means to produce a virtual version of the Caesar
Augustus, Ves got ready. He logged in the game and entered his
workshop. It was a good thing the machines in the workshop scaled to
the mech you were working on. Iron Spirit remained a game even if it
touted itself as a simulator, so it didn't want to scare people off by
being too greedy.

However, some people spread rumors that the game would introduce a
future update that 'enhanced' the gameplay experience of designers by
forcing them to start paying for upgrades in their equipment. For now,
the game simplified many things for Ves which he felt grateful for. He
only had to pay 40,000 credits to get the raw materials for the C1
delivered to his virtual workshop.
In actually, the cost of raw materials didn't actually represent the value
of the digital goods Ves received. The pallets of metals, plastics,
ceramics and other materials he received were just a bunch of data
that could be infinitely duplicated.
The payment acted more like a tax in another name. Some of it ended
in the hands of the taxmen, in Ves' case the Bright Republic. Another
portion got sent to the intellectual property owners of the many mechs
and components Ves used in his designs. Only a relatively small
portion of credits remained as revenue for the BSBH Corporation that
ran Iron Spirit.
"Well, now it's time to transform these ingots and pellets into working
components." Ves rubbed his digital hands as he approached the
virtual workshop's 3D printer.
The house-sized machine was a souped-up version of the one he had in
his real universe workshop. Much of its features and quirks carried
over. With a familiar hand, Ves started loading the blueprints of the
frame, the most fundamental part of a mech, representing the skeleton
that anchored the other components.
Since it mostly consisted of solid pieces, with the occasional hinges
and joints, the production occurred smoothly. The young Jason
Kozlowski hadn't messed with it evidently. Still, due to the higher
quality alloys used in its composition, the construction of the frame
took up half a day.

Next came the power reactor, the part that generated energy from
energy cells or processed fuel. In general, the power reactor was a
mature piece of technology. Developers only tinkered with it here and
there to provide a few more percents of efficiency or maximum
capacity. They could be easily scaled to tailor a mech's weight class,
and the C1 featured a fairly well-designed medium reactor.
As a long-standing manufacturer of aircars and shuttles, National
Aeromotives produced their own lines of power reactors. Jason
borrowed a premium reactor available from the company's R&D
division and stuffed it in his design.
The reactor required extra precision in the fabrication of its many
miniature parts. Ves had printed engines from scratch before with the
3D printer, but this was the first time he took the trouble to print each
millimeter-sized component one by one, and assembled them all
together by hand. The tedious work took up an entire day. Ves felt he
did an adequate job, in that the reactor worked. Whether it performed
well, that was for later.
With that experience over with, his work on the engine proceeded a
little smoother. Unlike the reactor, the engine took in energy to
produce motive force. It allowed the mech to move its limbs and run
like a marathon contestant. Much like the power reactor, Jason also
borrowed it from his daddy's company, so it contained little
innovations that made it troublesome to produce. Ves grew highly
appreciative of NA's craftsmanship when he finished assembling the
engine.
After that followed the musculature that made use of the motive force
to move the mech's limbs. Cheaper mechs such as those used in
agriculture used hydraulics, electrical engines or a bevy of other cheap
alternatives. Combat mechs required something more sophisticated, to
better emulate a living being's responsiveness when pilot connected to
them neurally. Lucky enough, the technology behind artificial

musculature remained stagnant for over a century, so its production
went like a breeze.
Next came some of the most difficult parts, the computer chips and
cabling that provided instructions and processing power to a machine.
It represented the brains and nervous system of the mech.
The chips demanded the most from the 3D printer, but they weren't
difficult to produce since they were lastgen technology by now. The
amount of miniaturization and other fancy stuff that went into the
production of a chip could only be taken care of by an automated
program. Ves only needed to inspect the 3D printer beforehand of dust
and faults before producing the tiny chips.
Ironically, the cables required more finesse. As if aware his mech
required too many cables, Jason chose a special mix of metals and
insulators in different proportions depending on the size of the
cabling. A single string of cabling could either be thicker or thinner at
certain parts depending on its location. It made for a fine mess when
you added in the sheer number of cabling, and Ves felt he was growing
mad at the end.
After a long rest and a good night's sleep, Ves continued with
manufacturing the specialist components of the Caesar Augustus.
These components differed wildly from each other, as Jason had filled
in a shopping list of all the best commercially available components.
The ECM, radar, boosters, gyroscope, cockpit, sensors and all the
other components came from wildly different manufacturers. This
meant that Ves had to watch out for certain issues on one set of parts,
but needed to pay attention to a different area with another set of
parts. Ves diligently read the documentation while he went over each
component, so he hadn't been met with outright failures.

However, many parts came off the 3D printer in a marginally
acceptable state. Ves lacked a reserve of raw materials to fabricate
replacements for all but the worst parts. It just couldn't be helped. He
could only blame Jason for blindly picking the shiniest toys and rely
on his super-duper expensive industrial scale workshop to reproduce
them perfectly.
With much of the interior of the mech done, Ves turned to the most
expensive part of the mech, its proprietary armor. Thirty years ago, a
manufacturer required a dedicated machine from National
Aeromotives to mix a bunch of metals into a highly compressed piece
of plating.
Fabrication technology advanced since that time, and now that the
armor's formula became semi-public knowledge with the release of the
C1's licensing options, all modern 3D printers could reproduce it as
long as they weren't too cheap.
The Caesar Augustus required a large amount of plating for a medium
mech. The large, bulky sword and shield also added to its total weight,
almost pushing the mech into the heavy weight class.
The production of the plates came with its own challenges. Due to Ves'
inexperience, some of its armor plates came out of the 3D printer with
higher than normal stress or other issues. If the virtual 3D printer
wasn't so good, Ves might get stuck with a number of half-failed
plates.
"Damn." Ves sighed as he finally finished producing all of the C1's
components. "This is more tiring than I thought. There's a world of
difference between 1-star and 5-star mechs. Hundreds of years of
technological progress only made things harder to build. I really miss
the simple Fantasia."

The challenges he faced with this step alone broadened his vision of
what mechs were capable of. Working on a near-modern mech meant
for elites taught Ves what this target segment looked for in a war
machine.
"An elite mech has to meet different requirements than regular
frontline mechs. They pack as much armor and punch as possible in a
reasonably mobile package. Energy efficiency isn't necessarily a
problem when you can swap fuel or energy cells from a support group
on the field."
Jason wasn't wrong to design the C1 along those lines. He just went a
little bit too far with it. Competing mechs could do almost everything
the Caesar Augustus could do, but lasted a little longer in the field.
Sometimes that extra time counted, so procurers wanted to be safe
than sorry by picking the less exaggerated choice. The Caesar
Augustus was also a bitch to maintain in a chaotic battlefield, so
generally only wealthy ace pilots who cared a lot about peak
performance bought the models.
"Next up, assembly."
To assemble the mech from scratch, Ves first put together the frame.
The parts that composed the mech's skeleton were built to be big and
robust, so Ves easily got to practice his enhanced assembler sub-skill
without much risk. The skill improved his ability to manipulate the
lifters and arms that composed the assembler module. The parts that
he wanted frozen stayed still, while the parts he wanted moved got
shifted around just enough but no further.
As Ves already assembled the power reactor and engine by hand, he
only needed to place them delicately in the slotted areas of the frame.

After that, Ves added the other components and systems that made up
the functionality of the mech. The biggest piece was the cockpit,
followed by the energy storage unit that stored the replaceable energy
cells. All the smaller systems followed, such as the sensors and
boosters.
Finally Ves reached the most troublesome stage. All of the components
had been installed on the mech, but they remained isolated to each
other. Ves had to connect each of them together in a mish-mash of
cables and pipes. In between these relatively delicate components, Ves
also had to squeeze in a lot of artificial muscles. Sometimes that led to
very tight fits.
The work tested Ves the utmost. He screwed up many times, having to
remove the cabling and do the placement all over again. Sometimes he
had to cram a bundle of cables through a narrow opening between
pipes by force. The stress and frustration caused Ves to slip his fingers
sometimes, causing unforgivable mistakes in the assembly.
After a nerve-wracking day of playing plumber, Ves finally reached the
end stage of the assembly. He spent a much more leisurely time
putting the armor plates together. Sometimes the improper cabling
caused the plates to fail to adhere in its position. Ves sometimes had to
hammer the problem areas lightly in order to cram the pieces of armor
in their place. It proved the parts he fabricated were of substandard
quality.
"It's finally done." Ves said as he sprawled on the ground in
exhaustion. The diagnostics and debugging still ran in the background,
but Iron Spirit took care of most of the issues that popped up at this
stage.
"What do you think, System? Did I do a decent job? Why aren't you
giving me an evaluation yet?"

[The Mech Designer System only evaluates designs, not copies. Since
you are not the designer of the Caesar Augustus C1, you will not earn
any Design Points even if you manufacture it a thousand times. Please
work hard and make your own designs.]
That made sense. The System didn't want to bring up a technician or a
factory supervisor. The main job of a mech designer was to make
designs. The act of fabricating a mech in person was only done in
order to understand the mech better or to ensure its quality.
Ves could only rely on the numbers given by Iron Spirit in judging how
well he built his first Caesar Augustus. And from what he read so far,
the news wasn't looking good.